UK Police Save £112 Million By Using BlackBerrys

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has claimed that the UK police force saves £112 million every year by using its devices and applications.

The company said that the combined savings of police forces all over the UK by using BlackBerry devices and applications amounted to £112 million, a figure derived by multiplying the average savings per police officer by the number of devices in use.

Rory O’Neill, Senior Director, Business Marketing (EMEA) at RIM informed eWeek that one in every six police officers owned a BlackBerry device and that 44 police groups out of 56 were effectively using BlackBerry devices and applications for their day-to-day operations.

“The police are able to spend more time on the street, and less in the police station. We have created applications that access back-end systems that can perform administrative tasks out on the street,” he explained.

The company also said that 82 per cent of police offers believed that BlackBerry assisted them in doing their job more effectively and that 75 per cent said they would be affected if the government took away their BlackBerry smartphones.